Work life
by Hashi-Hashi
Summary: Work has taken over the life of sweet child! Ciel and fatherly! Sebastian, it is breaking their little family apart. Can they pull themselves together before their time together is lost completely? Modern day AU fatherly love sebciel.
1. Craving for love

An: well that dead line failed XD sorry for my unexpected hiatus guys. Don't know what happened there, i just kinda stopped lol. Anyway, welcome to the sequel work life.

Ciel relaxed against the couch for the fourth time that day, pretending to be interested in the blank pages of the fake book. The camera man snapped shots of him reading a seemingly large and intelligent book, with sebastian sitting next to him looking like a teacher.

The photographers moved around them, yelling out for them to move certain limbs or change facial expressions. Ciel obeyed them, bored with the whole thing. He wanted to go home and play with Alois, not play puppet for old people.

Sebastian sent him a warning look and ciel fought to hide his smirk. At six and a half years old, he was starting to look a bit more like the cheeky young boy that he was, but Claude worked hard to keep his cute and innocent persona alive. He respected Claude, so he'd hide his smirk and keep grinning cutely for the camera.

The flashes stopped and the lamps shining artificial sunlight down on them dulled indicating it was time for them to get off the stage. The set was for their next film, based on a boarding school with a rich boy and a teacher who loses the use of his legs. Ciel had found the script only mildly interesting, but Claude had insisted upon it because the fan club was dying to see him and Sebastian together in a film again.

Ciel hadn't seen much of Sebastian lately. After he turned six, he'd been welcomed to 'the big world' by Claude, his self appointed manager. Sebastian had tried to be nice about it too, but they'd been right, in the acting industry there was no time for children.

He'd done nine children's films. One set being a trilogy series about child spies which he played the main role and the others were serious ones where he was a supporting actor to an adult.

He was known for being able to understand complex stories and scenes and a favorite amongst directors for his seriousness during work scenes. Most children actors wanted to mess around and play all day, but ciel hid that side of himself during work saving it up for when he saw alois.

Alois was still protective of his brother, demanding to spend as much time with him as he could while staying out of the spot light. Prefrontal to watch and observe from the sidelines and celebrating with his family later.

It was Claude's rule that alois be kept out of the buisness until he was fourteen and ready to make his debut in the musical field. Alois could sing any pop song floating around and even had a song writer to write lyrics for his own songs. He had a few kiddy albums out that were popular with younger kids. But Claude was planning to take him around the world on a huge tour.

Alois looked forward to joining his little brother in the industry. But he wanted to protect his brother more than anything else.  
Sebastian helped Ciel out of his costume and brushed the blue-black hair. He ran his fingers through Ciel's slowly pulling Ciel into a hug and enjoying the feel of his warm skinny body against his.

Ciel had never gained any weight, the doctor putting it to too much stomach acid and a fast metabolism had given up, trying to make him gain weight. He'd grown used it, although food agencies contacted him and Claude all the time whining at them that ciel was a bad role model for little kids. They got their revenge of course by starting up Ciel's own web show that was watched by twenty million kids every day. Ciel was a little icon, famous through out the world.

Sebastian pulled on Ciel's every day clothes reminding him of who had chosen his outfit and where it came from before picking him up and slinging his bag over his shoulder. "Alright, let's go ciel." he walked through the doors, finnian and Meyrin flanking them while bard pushed ahead clearing a path through the sea of fans and reporters.

Ciel rested his head on Sebastian's shoulder trying to ignore the reporter following them, not bothering to stay quiet.  
"This is the first time we've seen Sebastian and ciel together for a few months. Speculations are beginning to surface that the phantomhive's are not as family orientated as they once were. The two have been working around the clock and the workload is clearly taking it's effect on the youngest phantomhive, Ciel. Our favorite little boy can barely keep his head up as he and Sebastian are seen leaving the building after their promotional shoot for their new movie, 'Hope Springs.'

Ciel pulled his head up and waved enthusiastically to the crowd trying to appear awake and cheerful. The reporter continued, searching for anything to make the phantomhive's lose face. "Ciel has perked up at the attention of the crowds, clearly he's like his father and just wants the attention of the ladies." she winked at the camera suggestively and tried to break through meyrin's arms to talk to Sebastian and ciel.

She couldn't break through and the two ignored her until they climbed into the car. Ciel was buckled into his usual booster seat and the car sped off leaving the reporters and rowdy fans behind.

Ciel held onto sebastian's hand, craving the comfort and wanting to know that they weren't falling apart. Sebastian squeezed his hand and held it loosely while he talked with the undertaker, the weird guy that gave them all their jobs.

Ciel looked at it sadly, was he getting to old for sebastian to hold like he used too? Was that reporter right? He squeezed Sebastian's hand, hoping that he'd squeeze back again.

Sebastian pulled his hand out of Ciel's hold and climbed out of the parked car leaving finnian to get ciel.

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An: I feel horrible. But I need to set up the story, poor ciel. Please reviews to stop me feeling so sad for doing this to ciel ;',,(


	2. Drunken nights

Ciel sighed and held Finnian's hand tightly. Sebastian had been called away to Miami earlier that day and he was being dragged around a modeling show while they waited for his turn to be dressed up.

He was the star of the show obviously, with thousands of guests turning out to watch ciel strut down the cat walk in the latest young haute couture fashion. He couldn't care for any of the faces that he beamed at or the soft hands that squished his cheeks. There was only one guest he wanted to see and he wasn't coming.

Finnian tugged Ciel's hand towards the waiting makeup artists. He lifted the little boy up onto the high black leather adult chair and instantly six artists dived onto him.

Well used to the process, ciel gripped his tiger tightly and squeezed his eyes shut, ignoring the coos of how cute he looked.

Finnian was having the same treatment next to ciel, having promised him he would do so if ciel modeled in the show.

He watched the little boy flinching every time the six crisis or Hanna covered hands came to close.

Hands whirled expertly around their heads, orders were barked out furiously and apprentices scuttled off to fulfill them. It was a strange scene, finnian had been brought into with little ciel. He sighed leant back and went through what he had to do to keep ciel alive for that day. Kids weren't usually the type to need his level of protection, but he had to say he was enjoying it.

Normally clients were snappy or into squeezing his ass when they could. Ciel was a refreshing change, innocent and naive but at the same time, a pain in the ass. He took the chance to reach across and squeeze Ciel's hand letting the kid know that everything was alright.

It was a sad thing for a kid to be thrown into the industry so young. He knew that Claude was keeping his own son out of it for that reason. Sebastian didn't have the same thinking pattern as Claude and try as Claude might, ciel had been pulled into it the minute Sebastian had carried him up the little stage two years ago.

He was angelic, with a sweet smile and sharp wit. He learnt fast to shut up and go along with anything. It was so easy for Sebastian to push him into a directors clutches and party in Miami.

Claude had tried to sort Sebastian out, urging him to stop Ciel's shows and try to give him a normal life again-or as normal as they could have. But it was ending in tense fights and long arguments, in the end finnian had been left to babysit ciel, while Sebastian partied hard in Miami.

Usually the stoic manager, Claude would look after ciel and bring Sebastian back under his thumb in an easy two days. Yet this time, Claude seemed not to care. Taking his other young son, Alois, off to Fiji for a father-son holiday and leaving the rest behind him.

Not that he minded, he just worried for ciel, work life was not a life for a kid. Especially not one who held on tightly to toy cats and winced at the sound of scissors.

Two sharp clicks of fingers in front of his face made finnian paste on a large happy smile at the makeover he'd been given and jump up to carry little ciel over to the wardrobe department where a Similar thing would happen to both him and ciel.

Although he wasn't modeling he would be close to the front which meant that it would be important that he looked fashionable and in common couture style. Designers Moved like ants and finnian whispered so to ciel who giggled at his comment.

Some of the had their hands on his arguing with the make up team about their choices of hair or lips or whatever other goop they had plastered on.

Ciel was pulled into a tight pair of skinny jeans with red laces crossing over his legs up the side. Tribal patterning was swirled over his shirt and was completed with a saber-tooth necklace. His hair was gelled up into blue tipped random spikes and finnian could tell that he wasn't enjoying the experience.

Knowing that he had thirty seconds until ciel had a meltdown and threw a tantrum finnian moved quickly picking ciel up and moving him out if the chaos. Finnian successfully caught four darts but the fifth one found it's target, the center of Sebastian's face in his poster.

Finnian wrenched the dart out of the poster. Ciel really had good aim, Finnian sighed and out ciel down once he had calmed down, leading him out to the waiting area to stand in the waiting area. A temporary bodyguard known to finnian as Tanaka watched ciel while finnian checked the catwalk for any bombs, bugs or traps.

Ciel came out after a few minutes hips swinging, lips pouted looking every bit like the perfect young child model, which indeed he was. Finnian smiled sadly, his father should be there to see him.

Sebastian raised his bottle of jack Daniels, drunkenly yelling to the crowd. Girls and buffed up boys hung off his shoulders, smirking and wiggling up and down his side. Media hounds keenly shoved microphones into his face asking how his recent drunken episode was going to effect his relationship with Claude and his son ciel.

Sebastian waved the camera's away. "That little brat can look after himself. This is my job, that's his!"

One media guy pushed the rest away. Taking their recordings of the night. He turned to Sebastian. "Listen mate, you're drunk and not used to kids, I get it. But I'm going to give you these recordings back, and you listen to them in the morning. Next time you won't be so lucky."

Meyrin stepped forward and took them, horrified at what Sebastian had said. "Thankyou, we'll make sure he does listen."

Bard looked sideways at Meyrin, the look between them signaling what they were both thinking.  
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An: yeah...I don't like this part of the story XD review and hopefully we can get some ciel luvin' sooner ^-^


	3. Going to daddy

Bard looked sideways at Meyrin, the look between them signaling what they were both thinking.

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Finnian pulled the sheets back over Ciel and held the phone between his shoulder and chin. "What do you mean Sebastian said he...ahem..." he was hesitant to speak aloud what Sebastian had said, even when his charge was asleep. - "But it's because he was drunk right?"

Meyrin babbled something back to him and finnian sighed. "What can I do?...alright. Try and keep the media away, I'll talk to him about it...no that's okay, I can look after him until then."

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There was a rustle of the sheets as ciel awoke from his much needed sleep. Finnian was sitting beside him as always, waiting with his favorite apple juice and plain toast. He was busy talking on the phone and held the tray out to ciel, and lifted up a jacket that he pulled onto ciel. "There young master, now you won't get cold...uh? Oh yeah, I'm with him now. No, he only just woke up, you know what he's like then." Ciel gave finnian a funny look as he switched between talking to his charge and Meyrin on the phone.

Finnian smiled at him and started to collect his clothes for the day, taking special care to remember their labels encase they ran into any press.

Ciel finished eating and let finnian help him get dressed. Finnian picked him up and walked down the hallway.

"Okay Ciel, so today we're not going to work. Claude is going to pick you up and we're all going to Pitcairn Island."

Ciel didn't comment and just pulled himself closer to finnian before whispering, "is daddy coming?"

Finnian patted his back. "Maybe he'll come a few days in Ciel. But now, I'll call Claude, tell him we're all dressed and ready to go." finnian pulled out his sleek black mobile phone and dialed Claude's number.

"Oh, hey. We're all dressed and ready to go...nah he's fine, just a little upset about Sebastian I think...daddy...yeah I know." Finnian tried to avoid looking into Ciel's eyes when he said Sebastian. Claude had asked him whether he'd said Sebastian or daddy, which was a good way to tell how ciel was feeling. When he said Sebastian it indicated that he was either feeling annoyed or angry, while daddy could be happy...or upset. Which in this case finnian guessed that ciel was feeling very upset that Sebastian hadn't been around and wanted him badly.

Finnian patted him on the back again and walked out into the long drive away where a limo was waiting to pick them up. Checking the driver's certifications and then quickly scanning the car for anything unsafe he put ciel in the car and clipped him in his seatbelt for him not wanting to wait for ciel to fuss about putting it on.

The car ride took twenty minutes. Finnian had his hands full trying to answer questions about when 'daddy' might be coming back. He noticed that once again ciel was carrying the little tiger, the first present he'd ever been given and it was from Sebastian.

Thinking of presents, Ciel's birthday was coming up soon, Sebastian had made a big deal of it last year as it had been his first. He knew Sebastian had been planning to make a big deal out of this one, but the fights with Claude over the amount ciel worked had pushed him off course. So whether or not it was still happening, finnian was unsure.

The car slid to a halt and finnian lifted ciel out, letting the others grab their bags for them. Ciel held onto Finnian's hand waiting until they were in the secure private airport before he started to look for Claude.

He was spotted by Alois before he'd even begun to look. The blonde was caught mid leap by finnian who didn't want the frailer ciel to be squashed by older Alois. He spun alois down in a circle settling him on the ground next to ciel where he proceeded to squash ciel in a hug anyway.

Claude was following behind alois accompanied by a stressed looking Hanna. Claude smiled when he saw Ciel. "Good morning Ciel."

The blue haired boy dived on Claude hugging him just as tightly as Alois had hugged him and started to cry. Claude didn't look surprised, he picked him up and hugged him back. "Hey, hey no crying, I'm here. What are we crying for?"

The two of them walked off to a more private area away from Alois's stares and Hana's pitying looks. Finnian followed but gave them some room to talk out of respect.

"I want daddy. I want him." Ciel buried his head in Claude's chest and cried.

"I know you do, I know, but you're going to spend some time with Hanna and Finny. I'll be there for a bit too, then I'm going to go talk to daddy okay? Hush Ciel, I don't want you to cry, I want you to be happy."

There was a moment of silence then ciel looked up, his small face covered in tears and snot. Claude chuckled and cleaned up his face. "Can you be a big boy for me and stay strong while I get daddy?"

Wriggling away from the handkerchief once most of the mess a cleaned up ciel shook his head. "I wanna come with you to see daddy."

"Want, you want to come with me, not wanna." Claude tapped ciel on the nose, reminding him of is grammar before moving on to address what he actually said. "No Ciel, you can't come with me. Daddy is doing some grown up things, that's why I'm going."

Calling them grown up things earned Claude a scowl. He chuckled, "You're his son alright, adopted or not, you are far too much like him. But no ciel, I said no and I meant no."

Finnian came and interrupted the two. "Claude...I'll be there with him." The two exchanged a silent conversation.

After a few minutes Claude spoke.

"Finny...give me one day to make sure he's clean and sober, then follow me." Claude held ciel closer and kissed Ciel's forehead he supposed it was a side affect of their work life, but it seemed that Sebastian was missing out more and more on raising ciel.

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An: are you proud of me? Two updates in one day! ^-^ hope you all in joy this!

Disclaimer: I'm a teenaged girl, I don't own nothing.


	4. Making up

Ciel stared at the lemon slice on his plate and wrinkled his nose. "I don't like lemon."

Finnian chuckled and pulled the slice off his plate and put it on his own. "There you go little man. All sorted. You can eat the rest of it now."

Picking up his fork and eating a little bit of his muesli with fruit and yogurt Ciel started to scan the cafe for signs of Sebastian and Claude.

Finnian leant froward and started fiddling with Ciel's dark blue backpack in an attempt to distract the young boy from his task.

When the fiddling didn't work Finnian leant backs and said the one word that might convince the boy to lighten up and stop fretting. "Since it's so bright today,why don't we go play somewhere nice? Like the park?"

Sitting up straighter ciel nodded quickly looking much happier and started to eat a bit more. Then in the corner of his eye he noticed a flash of black. He whipped his head around and shouted out. "

"Daddy! Over here. Come over here." Ciel jumped up from his seat, finnian stopping him from running over. He knew the effects of a hangover, he didn't want ciel to be yelled at because Sebastian's head was pounding.

To Sebastian Ciel's voice was too high, he winced but was pulled forward by a determined Claude who growled at him to put a smile on his face.

When they finally reached the low coffee table Ciel wrapped his arms around Sebastian tightly. He didn't say anything, but both finnian and Claude could see plainly how much he'd missed Sebastian.

Sebastian's phone rang and the actor didn't hesitate to pull it out of his pocket. Patting ciel on the head condescendingly and walking to a corner to converse loudly with someone about what he drank last night.

ciel's eyes looked sad and he sat back down on his chair and took his stuffed tiger from finnian, hugging it to his chest tightly.

Claude looked really angry. He marched over to Sebastian pulled the phone away and broke it in half. "Go sit with your son and do whatever it takes to make up for your mistakes. You understand?"

Sebastian stared at his phone, his hung over mind not the usual Sebastian that everyone was used to seeing. "Fine, I will, I will."

He walked back over to the table and sat down next to a sulking ciel. "Hey, I'm sorry."

Ciel turned away. Sebastian had brushed him off so easily he didn't feel like talking to someone that did that. Especially not if it was someone he had trusted, ciel sniffed, there were still journalists who still wrote horrible things about him because he was a street gang kid. But he never expected to be treated like that by Sebastian.

Seeing how upset Ciel was Sebastian sobered up immediately. "Hey I'm sorry Ciel. That wasn't right for me to do that was it? I've been horrible."

Claude and finnian both raised an eyebrow at the immediate change in Sebastian's voice tone and behavior, but didn't say anything as ciel slowly turned around.

"What are you going to do to make it up to me?" Finnian struggled to keep a straight face when ciel asked that of Sebastian.

The raven haired actor brushed a hand through his hair and tried to ignore the swooning spectators. "Anything you want. A trip to Bali, a big birthday party, a record deal..." he listed off all of the things that he thought ciel might want.

"A dog." ciel smirked and looked up at Sebastian. He knew that Sebastian hated dogs.

Sebastian sighed. "It couldn't have been something simple like a party or a record deal could it. It had to be a...dog...fine ciel, fine. We'll get a dog."

"Alright!" ciel punched his fist up into the air and grinned widely. Claude smirked at Sebastian's exasperated face. The dozen or so spectators all clapped wildly and cheered.

Sebastian rolled his eyes.

Finnian picked ciel up, smoothing out scrunched up clothes and bits of stray hair. "We should probably leave sir before the photographers decide to close in."

Claude nodded astutely and let Meyrin and bard guide them out of the cafe, skillfully avoiding the clusters of various fangirls.

~~~~~~~~[{{}#^**^%#}{[[]{#%^*+*%#~|£¥+*^%#}|~~\_[]]{}#%^*€_~~~~~~~~~~~  
An: they're getting a puppy~~~ puppy puppy puppy!  
-I don't own anything but the plot  
-and on a more annoying note, it's my birthday today :D


	5. Getting the dog

Gripping Sebastian's hand tightly ciel looked into each of the cages looking for the one that he wanted. Various photographers were pointing out certain animals to ciel, getting as many photos of him playing with the shelter animals as they could.

Glad that the duo were getting some positive publicity Claude didn't stop the paparazzi, even letting a few have an interview with him. Alois was spending time in Malaysia with some friends that he used to have when he and Claude lived there. Relieved not to have his hyperactive son to disturb all of the animals, Claude let himself enjoy the sun and occasionally called out to ciel to come and have a look at whatever animal was nearby.

Suddenly ciel gasped and ran forward, letting go of sebastian's hand to crouch in front of a cage on the right. "Daddy! Look...can I have this one?"

Inside was a huge white dog, that was sitting in the very front of his cage with his tail wagging.

The lady from the shelter put in her best show smile, knowing that they could donate a lot of money to the place if they liked it. "This here is a very special breed of dog, known as a demon hound. His loyalty to his owner is unquestionable, and were widely used in the war as bomb and mine detectors.

Sebastian sighed, "great. We will take him."

Ciel grinned, "Pluto's coming home with us!" the big white dog barked happily at ciel, who just giggled in response.

Claude lifted ciel up so that the dog didn't knock him over when he came bounding out of his cage. "Pluto?"

"...That's his name Claude." all the cameramen laughed as ciel pulled a 'duh' face.

-

Ciel hugged Pluto closer, he loved his new puppy. It was huge, especially compared to him. It came up to Sebastian's waist and the poor actor was always having to watch him around ciel encase the dog decided to sit on top of the little boy.

But ciel loved him and so did funny, who thought that it was good for ciel to have something that loved him all the time, especially since he wasn't always able to show it as his bodyguard and Sebastian wasn't always around.

According to the lady at the shelter the dog that ciel had chosen was a very protective breed, it only chose one owner and this one had been raised form a puppy and hadn't 'chosen' anyone yet.

Sebastian had smiled a little when he heard that, it meant that even if finnian wasn't around there was another person who would be watching out for his ciel, making sure that he was safe. It had made him a little happier about Pluto being so huge too, the large dog was sure to scare off anyone the tried to come near them, even the paparazzi had seemed to be a little out off by the though of getting close to such a huge dog.

Claude watched as Sebastian's features changed as he thought about different things. He smiled and out his hand on top of Sebastian's giving it a little squeeze to remind him that he shouldn't think to hard and leaned over to do up Ciel's belt.

Their pilot hadn't been too impressed with the idea of bringing a dog on board his airplane but since Claude and Sebastian hired him he couldn't argue too much. They couldn't being the dog back to their home in London any other way. So it was lucky that they were able to convince the pilot that it would be okay with Pluto on board or they'd have a big problem on their hands.

Finnian let Meyrin fuss over his shoulder over ciel who was fast asleep with pluto's huge head in his little lap.

-\\|~~|\_-

When the plane reached the little airstrip near their house Pluto started whining by Ciel's feet. Waking the sleepy boy up.

Finnian shushed Pluto unscrews fully trying to encourage ciel to go back to sleep, before he threw a tantrum about being woken up when he wasn't ready. It there was anything not to do around. Ciel it was to wake him up, the little boy did not deal with being woken up at strange times, especially not when he was jet lagged. Which thankfully most directors who dealt with children were used to so none of Ciel's temper tantrums reached the news papers.

However this time ciel didn't go back to sleep and decided to make Finnian's job difficult by twisting and kicking in his seat yelling that he didn't want to get out of the plane.

Sebastian, deciding that now was the time to start to pay up for his mistakes, gently pushed finnian out of the way and unclipped ciel"s seat belt. Gently he lifted the little boy out of the seat, ignoring his kicks and shushing him gently. the two of them left the plane and Pluto followed, his tail wagging as he watched his little master happily.  
Sebastian walked ciel inside the house and patted his back gently, smiling as ciel calmed down considerably and sniffed into his chest. Whining to him in a whisper, "I'm still tired daddy, I'm still tired."

Deciding to give up on the idea of sending off the last few emails that he had to write and sit down with ciel to watch something nice and relaxing Sebastian walked over to the big puffy couches that they had and sank into them. Pluto lay down on the floor next to Sebastian and ciel and ciel reached down one small hand to stroke the silky fur lazily.

Claude entered the room and climbed over the top of the couch so that he could cuddle Sebastian and ciel at the same time. He kissed Sebastian's cheek lightly and pressed play on the remote, picking out one of Ciel's favorite movies, "Alvin and the chipmunks the squeakquel."

While ciel was captured by the singing animals on the screen he and Sebastian played footsies on the couch. Trying to ignore pluto's big beady eyes as he watched the two of them together.

After ten minutes of being steadily more scared by the thing glare of the dog Claude lean't over and whispered to Sebastian, "I can see why you hate dogs so much, that thing is really scaring me right one."

Sebastian nodded Ina greenest before rolling over and letting ciel move to lie next to Pluto. "I swear. That dog has something against me..."

Smirking claude turned Sebastian back around, determined not to get into any 'adult play' while ciel was around. Sebastian let Claude wrap himself around him and snuggle back down, watching Pluto cuddle around ciel precisely as the little boy fell asleep in the warm cocoon of hair.

"You know, i may hate dogs, but this one is pretty good for ciel I think...especially since those paparazzi seem to be getting more aggressive towards us as he grows up."

Claude nodded in agreement. "Just ain't until he is the right age to be a teenaged heart throbbed, the crowds are going to be bigger than Justin bieber, and the baby photo's, hmm, every day is going to be like a twenty first for him."

Sebadtian play pouted, "don't talk about my baby growing up, he's going to stay small and innocent forever. Okay?"

Claude smiled and settled down to finish watching the movie with Sebastian.  
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An: sorry for the wait-/ I'm a bad author...I'm sorry!


	6. Setting up a date

"Breaks never last for long, Eventually we have to give them up and submit to the hard trudge of work life. Yet the time that we do have away from work is often what motivates us to keep going when times get tough. It hard, it's boring, it's difficult and tiresome; that's work. We work hard to stay alive miranda, that's how it is on the streets. Someone doesn't take in kids like us just to feed and send to school for no reward. Forget what he told you, someone said that to me too once, and I ran away, ran away as fast as I could. Remember this Miranda." Ciel leant forward, depicting a serious adult as best as he could while he stared into the girl actor's eyes next to him. "If it sounds to good to be true...it is."

The director nodded, the cameraman stopped rolling and the two young actors slid off the set. Ciel headed directly to the promotional camera area, where pictures were taken for the fan books.

Finnian brushed back the blue-black locks of Ciel's hair and set him back into the right position in front of the camera. Ciel gave him a quick nod, letting him know he was ready.

A quick thumbs up to the camera man, ciel struck a pose and off the flash goes. Ciel's turn was eventually over so he walked out of the yellow taped square and moved to stand next to Finnian's side, knowing better than to converse with the children his age.

He supposed it was his intelligence that made him slightly off putting to children. To adults he was the epitome of children, he featured in Ok!, women's weekly, Darlin' wives, and Cleo. The gorgeous younger brother, perfect son, sweet Kiddy boyfriend for your own little child. Yet to children his own age, they didn't mix. He couldn't fathom why, he'd tried all his tricks; cute double blink, wide eyes, fluttering lashes, complex speech, simple speech, stutters, 'umms', 'ahhhs', speaking in a higher voice than normal, fidgeting, standing still, posing, acting natural, yet somehow nothing had worked. His only friend who was close to his age was alois.

Sensing his young charges mood, finnian rubbed is back softly. "We will be home soon, you can go and cuddle up with Pluto. Then Sebastian will wake you up when he gets back so you can have your time together okay?"

Ciel's only response was to hide his face in finnian's black blazer. The bodyguard chuckled and patted the back of Ciel's head, "don't ruin your make up, you're on camera again in a bit little man."

The little body, that was ciel didn't move and finnian rolled his eyes. Clearly ciel still didn't want to be there, but it wasn't his choice, even as his bodyguard he had little power over Ciel's work schedule.

It wasn't like Sebastian was much help either, he'd grown up under a similar kind of pressure, but had consequently forgotten what it felt like to be constantly under that pressure as he had grown up.  
Finnian pulled a candy bar out of his pocket and broke the corner off it, trying to tempt ciel into behaving for a little bit longer.

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Meanwhile Sebastian was shaking hands with the undertaker again. A ten year contract with a high ranking recording company looking to get into the film making business. That meant less hours, higher pay and more time with Ciel and Alois.

Claude adjusted his glasses, nodded his thanks to the undertaker one last time before exiting the room, pulling an ecstatic Sebastian with him.

The receptionist offered them a mint on their way out and they both declined, not wanting to think about what kind of things the undertaker might have in his breath mints.

Relishing the empty alley streets the two left the building and took their time getting into the car, allowing the warm sun to light their faces before they slid behind dark tinted windows, with sunglasses and bodyguards shielding them from view.

~~~~~~~~~}}##%%^^**+++++++++**^^%%##{{~~~~~~~~~

Pluto jumped up and barked at finnian when he stumbled through the door clumsily, carrying a half asleep ciel.

"hush boy, I'm putting him down in a minute. Just let me get my balance okay!" finnian laughed softly and moved swiftly up the stairs and into Ciel's bedroom.

"Alright Pluto on the bed, wait there, good boy." finnian got Ciel's pajamas out of the cupboard and smiled when Hanna came into the room.

"hey Hanna, just about to send ciel to bed, he's had a long day at work." Hanna caressed Ciel's face gently, and began working with finnian to get him ready for bed.

"I put master Alois down not that long ago, he still has jet lag from his flight, I think he and his friends stayed up late every night when he was there. Probably has to catch up on a lot of missed sleep as well." Hanna clucked her tongue disapprovingly, looking every bit like the perfect nanny.

She lifted Ciel's small frame up with ease and gently pulled back the feather covers, tucking him beneath them. She kissed his forehead softly, "good night sweetheart." she smiled as ciel murmured back, and then patted the space next to ciel to let Pluto know it was okay for him to snuggle with ciel now.

The big dog bounded forward, before dropping onto his belly and wrapping his big tail around ciel's waist. Effectively holding the boy in place and keeping him warm at the same time.

Hanna looked at finnian from beneath her eyelashes. "The triplets are watching alois...if you want me to keep you company while you watch Ciel?"

Finnian colored, stumbling and stuttering as his words tripped over themselves with eagerness to tumble out of his mouth in a garbled response. "Gahhh, yah, stay. Good, you like kids, watch ciel with me." finnian winced at his own overly high pitched voice.

Hanna's light laugh filled the room. "you're cute, I can see why ciel trusts you so much."

Finnian blushed. "ahh, thanks, But it's probably because I spend so much time with him." finnian stared at the corner of the room, wishing the ground would swallow him up. He and talking to girls didn't fit in the same sentence. Not even after he had lessons from bard.

Hanna smiled at him and pecked is cheek lightly. "You're cute, maybe we could alois and ciel out tomorrow and we- I mean they could see a movie."

Finnian nodded slowly. "unh huh, okay, great, Uhn. Hmm, ahh. I mean I'll ask ciel what he thinks."

Hanna laughed and tiptoed out of the room, having achieved what she came for.

-/::;;(()$::/-

An: anyone interested in reading the lessons finnian gave bard? I'd like to write it, but there might not be enough interest...


	7. Some time at home

For the first time in a long time Sebastian and ciel were spending a day alone. Finnian had taken Hanna out to see a movie with Claude and alois. Meyrin and bard were at the back of the house monitoring the security cameras so ciel and Sebastian finally had time to themselves.

Sebastian smiled as he watched ciel cautiously waddle a toy horse across the table. The beginnings of a playtime story starting to rumble through his head. He sat his chin on his hand and watched as slowly ciel began to drop his grown up act and began to play like any other little boy.

Making loud shooting noises ciel pretended that there was a rogue cowboy riding on top of the horse and a sheriff chasing after him. "Give me back the money you stole you nasty cowboy!"

Ciel switched back to a lower voice for the cowboy. "Never! I stole it! It's mine! Pew, pew, pew!" ciel made his shooting noises again as the pretend cowboy shot down the sheriff and began to make his escape.

Sebastian swooped in scooping ciel up and swinging him around in dizzying circles. "Oh no! Cowboy ciel has been captured by sheriff Sebastian!"

"Aahh no!" ciel laughed hard and pretended to fight against Sebastian to get out. He was carried around the room in a tight grip until he was dumped on the couch, or 'the jail'.

"Now give me the money you stole cowboy ciel!" Sebastian grinned when ciel shook his head wildly, "I'll just have to tickle it out of you then!" he dove on top of him, who began screeching with laughter and wiggling trying to get away from Sebastian's fingers.  
"No! No, stop it! Daddy!" the little boy was rolling on the couch panting from laughter.

Sebastian shook his head. "say 'mercy' then I'll stop!"

Ciel tried to hold out for longer but finally gasped out, "Mercy! Mercy daddy!"

Sebastian stopped and pulled ciel into his chest rubbing his back to calm him down before he over worked his lungs. The two of them stayed like that for a while, just relaxing and enjoying each others company.

Eventually Ciel's breathing was even again and Sebastian let him slide off his knee. Ciel grasped Sebastian's hands, "play horsey* with me?"

"play what?" Sebastian let the frustrated ciel pull him off the couch and settle him onto all fours.

"horsey, play horsey." ciel repeated simply, climbing onto sebastian's back.

Getting the idea Sebastian started to plod around the large room, stopping every once in a while to munch on pretend pieces of grass.

Pluto watched the two with a puppy look of amusement and growled a little when ciel came close to sliding off Sebastian's back.

The two ignored Pluto and continued to play, ciel had a bigger smile on his face than he had, had in a while.

~~~~~~~~~~

Soon Sebastian was sprawled on the carpet amazed by Ciel's energy. The little guy was still crawling all over him tugging at his hair and whining for him to play horsey again. He wrapped his arms around his little boy and pulled him down into his chest. "Hey there little man."

Ciel rested his ear against sebastian's chest so that he could hear his heart beat. "hey daddy." he didn't feel inclined to move so he lay still listening to Sebastian's heart.

The older male sat up and moved slowly into the kitchen, leaving the door open a little longer for Pluto. The dog padded after them at his own pace, keeping a firm eye on his little master.

Sebastian hummed as he looked at his state of the art kitchen. "haven't been in here for a while."

Ciel nodded in agreement. "you used to make me a treat to eat every afternoon."

The two of them chuckled as they remembered Ciel's refusal to eat anything anyone else but Sebastian cooked. "Two years ago, how have I let you grow up so much? So much time spent working..." Sebastian stroked Ciel's cheek and pulled him into his chest again. "I'm so sorry. I've missed so much time."

"It's okay." ciel patted Sebastian's arm trying to console him. Sebastian smiled softly, "I adopted you, but you're the only son I'll ever have. Do you know that? One day when you're all grown up and I'm an old man I'm going to regret all the times I was working and not being your father." Sebastian started to cry softly, tears sliding down his face and he kissed Ciel's forehead.

"I missed so many years of your life. You're turning eight soon aren't you? Hmm, what a special birthday that is going to be." Sebastian wiped his tears away and settled ciel on his hip as he walked around the kitchen. He lazily put together a chocolate cake, feeding ciel little tastes as he did.

When the cake was finally made Sebastian put ciel down so that he could stack the dishwasher. He turned the machine on and put some dog food down for pluto. Before he picked up a pouty ciel again.

When the cake was made Sebastian pulled it out of the oven and sat it up on the bench preparing two bowls with a bed of icecream, strawberries and mock cream for the cake to sit on.

Ciel watched, with his cheek resting on Sebastian's shoulder. Sebastian smiled and patted his thigh before cutting a slice of cake for them each and setting it on the bench for them both.

The two of them sat side by side on the bench, Sebastian dug into his cake, but ciel shot his a cheeky smile. He pushed his cutlery onto the floor and folded his arms. Sebastian frowned at him, "what are you doing."

"feed me." ciel opened his mouth like a baby waiting to be fed. Sebastian chuckled, getting the idea and held a forkful of cake up to Ciel's lips. "alright then baby. Open up."

Ciel swallowed the mouthful and opened his mouth again wanting more. Sebastian smirked and pulled ciel up onto his lap and got him settled. He fed ciel the whole bowl of cake, then let him rest while he ate his own slice.

With a full belly, and whole day of playing behind him it didn't take long for ciel to drift into sleep. Sebastian left the bowls behind and carried ciel into his room, sliding him beneath the sheets. Reveling in his time alone with him.

In a split decision Sebastian lay down too, throwing one lazy arm over his son as he fell asleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
* I know I have a few non-English speaking readers. So horsey is a cute way of saying horse. :)

An: and that's the end of work life. I might have a small story coming up on Ciel's birthday bash, but it's really up to you guys whether this series continues. If you like it, I'll keep it going write different parts of his life, short, long whatever you want. If not, well this is goodbye. Thankyou for all your support, I'm sorry this was a bit disappointing, I'm not the best author in the world, I can admit that. But hopefully I made some of you smile. Stay safe, Xx Hashi.


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